


Seventh Year Spooks [next update: May 31]

by DemiliaAug



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Marauders, Multi, jily, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-07-11 17:14:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15976820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemiliaAug/pseuds/DemiliaAug
Summary: In their final year at Hogwarts, the Marauders set out to pull a series of spooky pranks in October, muggle-style.





	1. Prologue: Simply a Classic

James and Sirius came back from a round of quidditch with a few of the other Gryffindors and immediately slipped into their room, broomsticks slung over their shoulders and grass trailing to the carpet. 

Remus and Peter were lounging on their beds and barely made notice of their arrival aside from eyes flicking up from their homework and back again. “When are the two of you going to stop being such buzzkills?” James asked as he flopped onto his bed with his broom and tore off his glasses. 

He squinted into the afternoon sunlight streaming through the window and wiped at his lenses with the corner of his sweatshirt. Remus scoffed and pushed his potions book away from him as Sirius jumped onto the bed next to him. “The same day the two of you decide to actually focus on your school work and not leave it to copying off me or begging me to do it the hour before class.”

Sirius looked up at Remus from his place sprawled across his legs and frowned. “Come on Moony. it’s our last year and we just wanted to have a bit of fun.”

The werewolf rolled his eyes and flicked at Sirius’ forehead. “You’re worse than him you know. At least he attempts to do his homework before he begs me for help. You just look at me with those mercurial eyes and expect me to fall for your charms.”

A wicked grin spread across Sirius’ face and he pushed himself up on his elbows to softly kiss Remus. “What can I say? My face is my best asset.”

James and Peter collectively groaned and Remus stuffed a pillow in Sirius’ face. “Stuff it Padfoot or you can go lounge on your own bed.”

A snort came from Peter as he tucked his parchment paper into his book and closed it. “As if you’d give up the chance to cuddle. You two are worse than Lily and James you know.”

“Oi, you’re just jealous the longest relationship you’ve had is with your pillow,” James huffed.

“As if you and Lily have really been together that long. Besides, I am officially the only eligible Marauder, which means I’ve been getting loads of dates. Where else do you think I sneak off to? There’s a couple of sixth year Hufflepuffs clambering over me as we speak.” Peter crossed his arms and looked triumphant.

Sirius and James both laughed but Remus just squinted. “I did hear two of them talking about him the other day. I suppose it could be true.”

Peter grinned and the rest of them just sighed. “Speaking of sneaking, what are we doing for Halloween this year?” Sirius asked, pushing the pillow off his face and grabbing Remus’ hand.

“Studying and staying out of trouble,” Remus replied dryly.

“Oh stop being so grumpy, you know that you love the adrenaline rush of a good prank,” Sirius chastised. 

“Except I do all the planning because you lot are hopeless,” Remus replied haughtily. 

“Oi!” Sirius, James and Peter shouted in defiance at the werewolf. “What if we unleashed a few boggarts in the castle?” James asked.

Remus stared at him. “That could literally be disastrous.”

“Oh it can’t be that bad,” Peter whined. “Like you have any better ideas.”

Sirius poked at Remus’ side. “Yeah what do you have in mind then Moony?”

Remus swatted at his hand and Sirius captured it, lacing both their hands together and holding them triumphantly in the air.

“We reenact classic muggle horror novels,” Remus said simply before going back to scribbling on his homework.


	2. Classic Lit 101

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The budding of a plan is formed.

James squinted at Remus, skeptical but trying to see where the plan was going. “Go on.”

Remus sighed and placed his quill on his parchment. “Look most of you lot are completely unfamiliar with things like Phantom of the Opera and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow right?”

“The Legend of what now?” Peter asked blinking.

Sirius rolled his eyes, “It’s this story about this headless horseman demon thing that terrorizes a town. It all turns out to be a prank or something.”

The other two Marauders stared at Sirius while Remus smirked. “WHAT? I read a lot of his books to see why he always has his nose in them.”

The dark haired boy crossed his arms and huffed, leaning onto Remus’ shoulder. The lanky boy continued, “We can start with Phantom of the Opera while you lot catch up on some of the other ones. We’ll make Peter the Phantom and the rest of us-” 

James cut Remus off. “That’s a stupid idea. I STILL can’t believe you made us watch that play last summer.”

“It was a musical, first off all. BASED OFF A BOOK AT THAT,” Sirius cried. 

“Nerd,” Peter coughed. “Good to see your boyfriend’s habits have rubbed off on you though.”

Remus sighed. “I don’t mean literally reenact the exact plot but we can play up the drama of it. Sirius knows how to play the organ right? We put him under the invisibility cloak and have him play the one in the Great Hall at dinner time. It’ll freak out everyone. Then Peter waits in the hallway in a mask and cloak and just creepily floats around. He can duck into an empty archway and transform into a rat and go back to the dorms. Unless they’re muggle born, hardly anyone will recognize what we’re doing. Even then, they’ll be confused as all hell. It’s brilliant.”

James interjected, “What do we do then?”

“If you would let me finish. You get to play the hero. We let Lily in on the prank and have Peter go after her, but you constantly stop him. Meanwhile, I’ll spread some rumors around and play up the horror of it all. Plus I also have to do my prefect duties, so obviously I can’t be too involved.”

They sat in silence as they all mulled over the idea. “Do you really think people will freak out?” James ask, breaking the silence.

“Wouldn’t you if some ghost we have never encountered before started targeting students and shit?”

“Fair point. Won’t they notice that Sirius and Peter aren’t around when it happens though?”

Remus shook his head. “We’ll make sure they’re seen beforehand and release a small distraction like bats or something after they walk out so people won’t think to look for them when everything absolutely goes to shit.”

“It’s bloody brilliant,” Sirius exclaimed as they went through the plan again and again.

A smug look overcame Remus’ face and Peter began to nod. “I’m in,” the short boy piped in.

“Of course you are, you get to have all the fun,” Sirius whined.

A sharp elbow was jabbed into his side courtesy of Remus and he promptly stopped. “It’s still not fair that I have to play the organ in all this,” Sirius mumbled to himself.

“So we’re going to need to work out all the logistics in this AND go find Lily to get her in on the plan,” James said, ignoring Sirius’ commentary. “Maybe now?”

“It can wait until tomorrow, you know. There’s no sense in bothering her now and the only reason you even want to start on planning and scouting is because it would involve Lily and you want to spend every waking moment with her,” Remus replied dryly.

James scoffed. “As if you and Sirius don’t spend every moment practically attached at the hip.”

Sirius and Remus rolled their eyes in sync and James only threw his hand in the air, his point being proven for him. Peter giggled, thoroughly amused by it all.

“Fine, we’ll tell her at breakfast tomorrow then.” James gave in and decided to promptly get ready for bed. 

The other three Marauders each began their own routine of shuffling off papers and throwing about items to find their bedclothes. Later, each tucked themselves into bed after all murmuring goodnight to each other. 

Remus stayed awake long past the rest of them, intricately thinking about the details of the plan in his mind. He was very satisfied in himself for such a great idea on the fly. He just hoped it lived up to the greatest prank in Marauder Hallowe’en history.


	3. Thou still let'st slip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plan begins to take action.

Lily stared at Remus with an awestruck expression that slowly turned into a smirk and glint in her eye, “I love it.”

Remus looked to the other Marauders, “See I told you my plans are the best.”

Sirius grinned and looked at his boyfriend with love-struck admiration and James and Peter nodded sagely. The five of them were lingering at the Gryffindor table, huddled over their breakfasts.

“We should probably get to class then.We’ll be in a load of trouble with McGonagall if we miss her class,” James said sadly.

They all nodded and hurried to grab their things and rush out of the Great Hall. In the nick of time, they made it to her class with a clambering of sounds and distractions. Professor McGonagall looked up from her desk through the rim of her classes and huffed. “Evans, I do hope you don’t let their follies rub off on you.”

Lily turned a bright shade of red and James smirked as a few snickers went around the room. Everyone was aware Lily had been putting off his advances for years and it was still an occasional topic of gossip that she had finally found the Potter boy charming. Remus shot her a look of sympathy from his seat across the room and she smiled gratefully in return.

After the lecture, Remus hung back to talk to some of the other seventh years that he spent time studying with in the library. One them was a girl that had strove to be prefect before Mary got it, a slightly nosy blonde. “Remus, I know they’re your best friends but you can’t slip on your prefect duties.”

The other three Marauders were hanging back and talking to Lily, pretending they weren’t listening to their every word. They had discussed enacting the plan on the way over and were waiting to see if Remus was going to follow through.

The lanky boy looked around to check nobody was watching and leaned in conspiratorially. “I’m not sure why they were later actually. I imagine James and Lily were together and Sirius and Peter were probably following them to mess about. But I was looking into a complaint from a first year about a new ghost.”

Mary stood next to Remus and looked quizzically at him, the first time she had heard of it but didn’t say anything. She usually went along with what he said, being fully aware that occasionally it was a Marauders plot. Being roommates with Lily taught her as much over the years. Remus internally thanked his lucky stars.

The blonde and her friend were both gleaming with the information. “What was so special about the ghost that warranted it?” the friend asked.

“Oh well you know, just the typical ghost stuff. He was lingering about trying to scare this first year. He has a mask but he took it off and showed a face that was basically his entire skull. No nose, eyes sunken in and just really corpse-like. The first year was scared out of his wits.”

The two girls looked concerned and even Mary was biting her lip. But Remus continued, “I was looking about the castle for him but I didn’t find him. I’m sure it was nothing though. He’s probably just a wizard that had a really unfortunate accident and mostly harmless, I assume.”

Remus looked back over his shoulder and pretended to notice his friends for the first time. “Oh they must be waiting for me. Mary, we can talk about the ghost tonight at dinner to make sure we let everyone know, yeah?”

She nodded, her honey colored hair swinging in its ponytail. “Of course! I’ll keep an eye out in the meantime and let the head boy and girl know.”

“Great,” Remus said brightly and waved at his study group before shuffling up to Sirius and his friends. His boyfriend linked their arms and the group strolled out together and down the hall.

Ever the cat that ate the canary, Sirius poked at Remus’ side. “Well?”

A smirk tugged at the corner of the boy’s lips. “The game is afoot.”

Lily and James were walking with their fingers interlaced and Lily rolled her eyes. “Okay Shakespeare.”

“That’s a muggle poet right?” James asked completely serious.

Everyone in the group turned to look at him in pity, but Peter was the one who spoke first. “Even I know that James. Honestly, do you read anything?”

Sirius, Lily, Remus choked on their laughter as James flushed and they scurried off to their next class.


	4. A change of plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slytherins are always lurking.

Mary slid into the empty spot next to Lily on the bench at the table and carefully leveled with Remus. “I started telling some people, but I want in on the prank,” she said flatly.

James choked on his mouthful of food and Sirius cackled. Remus shrugged, “Fair enough. We’re going to get everyone with some muggle horror book ideas.”

He took another bite of his turkey and chewed it careful. Mary squinted at him and Marlene suddenly perked up in interest. “Details?”

Peter looked around them and Remus nodded at him. “He’s right. Too many ears. We can talk about it later. Meet us out by the lake, yeah?”

Lily looked amused and assured them that they would be out there later that night before the group of students went back to eating. Behind them though, they hadn’t realized that a Slytherin named Olivia Catherine Leith who had heard everything and was entirely intrigued.

~

It was windy that night and it sent a chill down the Marauders’ spines as they headed out to the lake under the invisibility cloak. They had gotten up from the table and headed up to their dorm for show, before coming down in the cloak. Anyone that had been asked where they thought they were that night, it was asleep in bed.

Lily, Mary and Marlene on the other hand had casually mentioned going for a stroll before going to the library to study. It was too biting for anyone to want to join so nobody would see them meeting the boys.

Olivia simply left the dining hall as soon as she heard them and waited after casting an invisibility spell. She knew of the four Gryffindor boys that constantly caused a ruckus. In some ways she admired them; in some ways she envied them. Things were getting to be a little boring around the castle these days and she wanted in.

~~

The Marauders tore off their cloak when they reached just outside the range of the Whomping Willow, the branches going wild. They always met in that spot since provided for a nice warning when there were potential intruders sneaking up on them. 

A few minutes later the girls arrived, and unbeknownst to any of them, Olivia creeped up on them at the same time. Lily sank into the ground, already well aware of the plan and James plopped himself next to her under the guise of mumbling about wanting to make sure she was warm. Remus and Sirius gagged until he shot them a dirty look and Marlene and Peter lost it. 

Mary finally cocked her head and put her hands on her hips. “Well? Spill the details Remus.”

The lanky boy sighed as he wrapped his arms from behind around Sirius and tucked on his shoulder. “So we realized that we needed a grand prank this year to really bring up the spooky factor. It’s our last year and we want to go out with a bang.”

“But we won’t even be gone until the end of the year.” she replied dryly.

Peter waved a hand. “Yeah, and we’ll pull an even bigger one that could get us expelled then. Except the difference is we’ll be so close they won’t bother. What we want to do is scare the wits out of the students though, not stir up trouble with McGonagall.”

Mary huffed. “Those kind of go hand-in-hand.”

James rolled his eyes. “There’s a difference. You just have to roll with it and trust us. We’ve had too much experience.”

A sigh came from the girl’s lips and Marlene slung an arm around her shoulders. “Stop being a stick in the mud and let’s hear what they got cooking then.”

Sirius mouthed ‘thank you’ to their friend in arms and Remus continued his explanation of how the plot was born and what they would be enacting. Marlene listened with a glint in her eyes, familiar enough with everything that she was on board in any way she could help: gossip.

“Oh I am all over this. Mary and I are going to have a field day riling everyone up for the main event.”

A whine came from her friend who was looking at them in dismay. One of her parents was a muggle and the other a witch, so she knew exactly what she was in for and the work that it would entail. “I have a bad feeling about this,” she whined.

“It’s not like were asking for your help past talking about the ghost a little and pretending you don’t know what’s going on,” Sirius said thoughtfully.

She gave him a pointed look and he rose his hands defensively. A snicker came from beside them and everyone looked around. There had been no other person nearby in sight, but the creeping realization that someone had obviously used an invisibility charm just occurred to them. Before anyone could react, Remus whipped out his wand and winced as he cried “Revelio.”

There stood a lean but muscular Slytherin that was a grade or two behind them. James recognized her as someone he saw practicing with the Slytherins on occasion at the quidditch pitch, though not on the team. Her pale skin was illuminated in the moonlight beneath her bob of puffy, brown hair. Her brown eyes were wide and a look of panic crossed her face.

Sirius cracked his knuckles as he stared her down until Remus touched his lower back to signal him to calm down. James tightened his grip on Lily and finally spoke, “Leaf? Lee? Leigh? Leith! Or something right?”

The girl was around Lily’s height, which was pretty average, but she shrunk into herself as she realized she wasn’t just caught snooping on the school’s tricksters and co., but also recognized.”

She nodded meekly and waited for someone else to say something. Mary crossed her arms and looked at the boys. “See this is what I mean about not pranking people. You were bound to be caught at one point.”

Olivia’s eyes widened even further and she shook her head. “No! I swear I won’t tell anyone. I actually came because I heard you guys talking in the Great Hall and I wanted to help.”

Sirius looked stunned and Remus carefully thought the idea over. Marlene was sizing her up and nodded with a sign of approval while Lily and James both looked at one another quizzically. Peter simply shrugged, “I don’t see why not. You already heard everything we’ve said.”

Mary sputtered and Remus looked amused as he nodded at his friend. “Yeah we can give it a go.”

“So you’re not going to beat me up?” Olivia asked with a sigh of relief.

Remus flicked Sirius in the back of the head for even putting that thought in the younger student’s head and sighed. Sirius let out a yelp and rubbed the back of his head before meekly muttering that he was indeed not going to resort to violence on a Slytherin unless of course it was Regulus or his idiot friends. Olivia awkwardly mumbled that she didn’t even like his brother.

“That settles that then I guess,” James said. “Aside from, what do we actually do with her?”

A glint shone in both Marlene and Sirius’ eye, a rare occasion as they agreed on something. “We make her the Phantom.”


End file.
